Yankee Candle Vs. Illuminations Halloween Decor Specifically

It's coming up on the time of year where summer starts to end, kids go back to school soon, and my thoughts turn towards fall, my birthday, and Halloween.

I love Autumn for many reasons.  Being in Arizona, it means that the summer heat is about to dissipate and finally get comfortable again.  The leaves change color in a dramatic fashion and always makes for beautiful scenery in places like Wisconsin.  My birthday comes along and I get some much needed love and attention no matter how old I get.  BUT the highlight of the season is HALLOWEEN!!!!  Yay! Yeah! Yippie!

So where am I going with this you ask?  Decorating for Halloween is my favorite part of the holiday.  I don't like giving away candy.  I don't like kids.  I'm never skinny enough to wear the kinds of costumes I'd like to pour myself into, and I certainly don't like being scared.  But somehow, I love Halloween and all the decor that goes with it.  I also love candles and candlelight so these two work together in harmony for this holiday.

When a store called Illuminations was around, the decor that they offered could not be beat.  They offered a little bit of every style - classy, fun, scary, campy, and sophisticated to fit your needs.  They sold stuff that I bought like little fuzzy spiders, boulder sized marbles that had eyeballs painted on them, little glass pumpkins, and a huge array of candle holders.  If you saw the store in its glory you would instantly be relaxed in its atmosphere.  If you never visited before they folded, when you entered it was dark.  Mostly the store was illuminated by candle light only, and they had a LOT of candles all burning safely at the same time.  It was a great way to relax, shop, and see what all their products looked like in use.

I didn't particularly like their scented candles, but the quality of the actual candle itself was awesome.  I bought floating candles from them many times and they never burned unevenly or smoked.

Their designs were truly unique and attractive.  They were more expensive than most, but the quality was worth the price.  I have glass floater bowls that are super dense and beautifully made.  I know I can't get them anywhere else, which is why I'm glad I did while I could.

I miss them so much.  It was the biggest disappointment to me when I learned of their buy out from Yankee Candle.

Now, Yankee Candle assured us shoppers that they would buy out Illuminations and to watch in the coming months for them to alter their product line to kind of merge the 2 companies styles.  That was over 2 years ago and I still see no Illuminations like quality product from Yankee.

Yankee I have liked for a long time.  I think their scented candles cannot be beat for duplication of real life scents and the candles do burn for a long time, though you have to spend a lot of money for a large jar that burns around 300 hours.  I think the price is up to $25.00 or so. 

They have always celebrated the holidays as well by putting out limited edition candles and accessories, but I never cared for them as much as the accessories from Illuminations.

Yankee Candle always seemed to make their Halloween line a bit kiddish, and not scary at all.  It's like cartoon skeletons and such, and not much outside of candles and candle holders.  This is where Illuminations really gave shoppers some choice on how to integrate candles and home decorating on their own, instead of being locked down to a single idea from Yankee.  I suppose I could phrase it as Illuminations gave out a ton of ideas in their catalogues with lots of different pieces and you decided which you liked the best.  If you didn't you could create something entirely different with the same pieces.  Kinda' like Legos.  They show you a book full of ideas, but you can still make whatever you like.  There's no way to do that with Yankee stuff or any other candle company out there.  Illuminations gave you more creative freedom, which I thrive on, and Yankee says take it or leave it, this is what we designed this year.

So, I'm pretty pissed off that Yankee Candle bought out their best competition (and a better product line), promised they would have something left of them for us faithfuls, and then gobbled them whole without leaving a trace of their legacy.  It's frustrating and saddening.

I've found no suitable alternative yet.  I'm still looking  and if you know of anything that resembles Illuminations, please let me know.

I still shop at Yankee for lack of a better store.  It's a love/hate relationship I guess.  It's just to get my candle needs accommodated until something better comes along.

I miss Illuminations... *sigh*